Aside from James Bond movies, what would you like to hear Tysto do a commentary for in the near future?
UPDATE: The results are in, and the votes came down in favor of more Schwarzenegger, and maybe more Star Wars, an Italian thriller (giallo), and Moon.
Quick: name two of the tallest and most influential people in history/fiction who were forced to confront slavery and the threat of the destruction of their civilization and who had beards. You thought of Abraham Lincoln and Qui-Gon Jinn, didn’t you? I knew it! Both of them certainly had an enormous influence on the world around them and the posterity of their respective cultures. But which of them is the more important, the more influential, and the more all-around awesome?
Continue reading Qui-Gon Jinn vs Abraham Lincoln
The 1980s was a time when action movies crashed noisily into American culture and seemed to take it over. They created a kind of film that had hardly been seen before; films where cops—for the most part—wreaked holy hell upon bad guys in the name of justice and then made snarky jokes about it.
Previously, action movies had mainly been dime-a-dozen westerns that gradually evolved into thoughtful essays on man’s propensity for violence and loneliness. From the invention of cinema to the early-’70s, you could find them any time you wanted to buy a ticket.
Continue reading The rise and fall of the ’80s action genre
Arnold Schwarzenegger has been featured in nearly forty movies over the years. Curiously, few film makers have bothered to explain why their beefy hero has a thick Austrian accent or even changed the name of the character to one that sounds like it might be worn on the name tag of a guy with a thick Austrian accent. Let’s examine the major roles.
Continue reading Handsome strangers